Archive for the ‘News and Events’ Category
Yippee! Pictures are here! See what you have done — again!!
Saturday, January 14th, 2012Here are the photos we have been waiting for. All of you who have contributed to this project should take a moment to realize what your support has accomplished. Through your efforts, you have reached half way round the world and made a significant difference in the lives of over 200 children. We applaud you and thank you.
We have two more final items to deal with. We will be furnishing the new classrooms with new desks and chairs. Recently the Togolese government passed a law making it illegal to cut down trees. We understand they are trying to do a good thing; however, this law has caused the cost of wood to skyrocket — which means our desks and chairs will be more expensive. Not much we can do about this.
Also, we have been discussing the water situation in the village. As you may recall, we furnished the school with a cistern for clean drinking water. We have determined that another cistern is needed and want to provide this. We have also determined that this village is not ready for a well. We know that sounds strange, but to justify spending the money to dig a well (which is very costly), the citizens of the village must be very organized and able to maintain the well once it is built. We feel they are not quite ready to take on this kind of responsibility. Another cistern will adequately serve their purposes for now. It is important that we take our time and not rush this. We want to allow the people the time to demonstrate that they are making progress towards this goal. As we will be monitoring Dédékè for the next few years, there may come a time when we can revisit the idea of digging a well.
We will continue to keep you posted on our efforts with the desks, chairs and cistern.
Thank you for making this a great start to the new year!!
Natalie
While We Wait…….Mill Photos
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012So, the school building has been finished for a couple of weeks now, but we have yet to get pictures!! We did receive some photos but the quality is so poor, we don’t want to share. However, we do have some great new photos of the cassava mill.
If you remember, we introduced the village of Dédékè to Claire Quinum — a wonderful woman who heads up a local NGO by the name of Floraison. She has been working with the villagers on income generating skills. She also secured a grant from the Japanese government to create a cassava milling project. Please take a look at the new building that houses the mill. The project will not only allow the villagers to mill their own cassava, but will give them a service business to mill for other villages in the surrounding area. These are the kinds of projects that will help to sustain the school by making it possible for the villagers to earn income and be able to save funds for their children’s education. Bravo!!
The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Will Inspire!
Saturday, December 10th, 2011Seasons Greetings from Togo!
We are pleased and proud to report that our roof on the final classroom has been constructed!
The Roof is Up!
Some thoughts on where we are and where we are going:
We have learned soooo much in this process and as we begin to wrap up the building phase, we now turn our attention toward income skills generation, so that these villagers can sustain a first-rate education themselves. This is a critical element of the plan, in that, if these villagers take ownership and responsibility for funding the school going forward, it is certain to last for generations of students.
We have all seen what happens in other projects where outsiders see a need, spend hundreds of thousands, in some cases millions of dollars, plop a school down on the locals and move too quickly to the next site. Eventually the building becomes a grain silo or barn…
Not LeapingStone!
Instead, we have entered into an agreement with these local people to develop self-sustaining funding for curriculum costs and maintenance. Without their buy-in to the program, and indeed, without their voice on the manner, we would not have had confidence in moving ahead with the project.
This is a key element to success.
Perhaps you have been waiting for the right time to donate and wanted to see how things went? Well, if the holiday spirit moves you, and you would like to support a program that is lifting kids out of poverty for generations to come, now is a great time to donate. Here are four things we are looking to do with the next round of fundraising:
- Continue to implement an Income Skills program for both the Men AND Women in the village of Dédékè
- Develop LeapingStone’s project plan to locate other qualified villages in Togo and beyond if possible
- Create a $3M endowment that will provide funding for sustainable development of future education projects
- Hire staff to help Natalie Huberman grow this charitable effort
This blog wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t send a deep note of gratitude to all of you that have made this project possible! We hope you are as inspired as we are!
Thanks for reading and please pass this along to those people you know who believe in the power of positive change in a challenging world!
Cheers!
